Rejoice!

A Newsletter of Joseph United Methodist Church

Get ready for the holidays with treats. You have your pick of homemade canned goods, jams, jellies, salsa, pickles, and more. There are homemade gifts and crafts ... as well as baked goods and candies. We will be featuring our ever popular gift baskets as well as assorted bargains and treasures for all. Satisfy your stomach with cinnamon rolls, soup, pie, and coffee. All of this is at The PLACE on Fri & Sat from 9 am - 3 pm.

Charge Conference
Our annual charge conference meeting will be held on Monday, November 21st at 6:30 pm. Charge Conference is the official, yearly meeting of a local church and conducts our yearly church business. Our presiding Elder will be Rev. Lisa Payton from Baker UMC. You are invited to participate and meet our new District Superintendent Gwen Drake.

First Sunday of the Month, Oct 2nd
Collections for the Food Bank
and Imagine No Malaria

United Methodist Women Meet Thursday, November 17th
Help us set up for one of our biggest events of the year, the Methodist Market! We have a wide variety of things to offer. Help us make it all look beautiful.

All women of the church are encouraged to be a part of United Methodist Women. The group meets on the third Thursday of every month except July and August. Our next meeting is Thursday, Nov 17that 9:00 am atThe PLACE. Bring a sack lunch.

Fall Clean-Up of the ChurchOctober 30th was a 5th Sunday, and this time our special project was sprucing up the church, inside and out. Thank you to everyone who participated! (See the church’s Facebook page for more pictures!)

Flags in the SanctuaryOver the past several weeks, some people have been asking, “Where are the flags?” They noticed that they were no longer up in the chancel area next to The Lord’s Table. Some people considered this a good thing. Others were not so happy about it. Realizing that people in our congregation have widely differing views on the subject of flags in the church, the Single Board Governance Council (SBG) took the matter up in their most recent meeting on November 6th.

The first thing that we considered, what does The Book of Discipline have to say? It is a book that provides guidelines for many areas of the United Methodist Church, both theologically and administratively. It provides “the method” for United Methodists. Unfortunately, The Book of Discipline does not address the issue of flags at all, which the SBG found surprising.

There are sound theological reasons both for having the U.S. flag in worship space and not having it in worship space.* The most compelling for the SBG were that the U.S. flag reminds us of and helps us to be thankful for the freedom we have to worship in this country that a lot of people in other part of the world do not have. It also honors those who have fought and sacrificed to allow us to have that freedom.

However, though the U.S. is home and host to individuals from all over the world, the U.S. flag can represent oppression. This is despite our ideals of living as a nation as “one of many peoples.” Moreover, Christianity is a global religion, not belonging to any particular nation or country. When we gather for worship, it is to worship the Triune God. It is to give glory and honor to God, who is the God over all. “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28).

In the spirit of honoring these differing perspectives, the SBG agreed to regularly display the flags (both U.S. and Christian), on the last Sunday of the month. We are both very thankful for this country in which we live, and acknowledge that our ultimate allegiance is to God.

Peace in Christ,
Single Board Governance Council

P.S. The flags will be displayed on November 13th in honor of Veteran’s Day, which was celebrated on November 11th.